A couple of weeks ago I attended the European beer bloggers conference this year hosted in Edinburgh. I had a fantastic weekend of all things beer plus made loads of new friends and caught up with old ones - I had an absolute hoot!

One aspect that I love is the bottle swap/grab/giveaway that occurs, here are the beers that I'm looking forward to baron rating with Chris over the next few tasting sessions:

Fyne Zombier - 6.9% deep black porter with a caramel tan head. Big aromas and flavours of treacle, toffee and liquorice with hints of chocolate and coffee. A lingering roasted malt bitterness returns from the dead with bite - thank you Fyne Ales for handing these over

Harviestoun 30th Anniversary Ola Dubh - 11.3% We make Ola Dubh 30 by taking our Old Engine Oil (amped up to 10.5%) and
aging it for up to 6 months in casks that previously held Highland
Park’s phenomenal 30 Year Old single malt whisky - thank you Harviestoun

BrewDog Hello My Name Is Mette Marit Censored - 8.2% lingonberry double IPA - thanks to the BrewDog brewer for this very special pre-release bottle of this beer

Weird Beard Mariana Trench - 5.3% transpacific pale ale, Pacific Northwest meets Pacific Southwest as the best of American and NZ hops meld together with just enough malt backbone to allow them to sing. A riot of mango and passion fruit on the nose but balanced enough to drink by the bucketful. Dive in and grab another bottle but don't get the bends

Weird Beard/Elusive Brewing Nelson Saison - 6.9% The second in their single hop series, showcasing the Nelson Sauvin hop so expect elderflower and gooseberries blended with Saison yeast character - thanks to @tabamatu for handing over his colab beer (as well as the other Weird Beard one)